Locke

Synopsis

Leaving the construction site on the eve of a major project, construction manager Ivan Locke receives news that sends him driving the two hours from Birmingham to London, but even further from the life he once knew. Making the decision that he has to make, he then calls his wife, his sons, his co-workers and boss telling them the secret that he is bearing and trying to keep his job and family intact. But even more importantly, he will have to face himself and the choices he has made.

Leaving the construction site on the eve of a major project, construction manager Ivan Locke receives news that sends him driving the two hours from Birmingham to London, but even further from the life he once knew. Making the decision that he has to make, he then calls his wife, his sons, his co-workers and boss telling them the secret that he is bearing and trying to keep his job and family intact. But even more importantly, he will have to face himself and the choices he has made.

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

A man among men

Here I am, giving lectures to fathers about maintaining the different
relationships in their lives. But alas!, how does one demonstrate the
ideal, even if you might know such a person?

In comes this film Locke, demonstrating integrity, responsibility,
caring, loyalty, firmness, perseverance, plus some more good things
about being a man among men. Forget about Hercules, Braveheart and so
many attractive and well muscled heroes. Here is a man who knows how to
be alone, how to overcome rejection, how to lead colleagues, how to
embrace his children,how to accept his wife as a person even when she
acts unfairly, how to be fearlessly honest.

And yet he is not some miracle. He gets extremely frustrated an angry,
but he can allow it to happen without picking on someone else.

What a movie!!

Reviewed by Andrew Gold 9 / 10

If there were any doubts that Tom Hardy is one of the best working actors today...

...Locke provides irrefutable proof that he is. Tom Hardy is absolutely
captivating in this role, and he has to be. It's all about his
character Ivan Locke driving in a car. That's the setting. All forms of
dialogue are from Locke and from calls he gets ingoing and outgoing
through the car. The weird thing is, you don't even notice it after a
while. Everything flows so smoothly and Tom Hardy's performance
completely captures everything you'd expect from this character as he's
experiencing these dilemmas - you believe every word out of his mouth
and every subtle nuance in his expressions. Tom Hardy owns this movie
and Locke really is the perfect vehicle (literally) for showing off his
barebones acting chops.

The story itself is that Ivan Locke is a construction worker who just
got off his shift and is now driving back, but then gets some calls
that give us insight into what he has going on in his personal life and
his work life and how Locke responds to this information as it gets
progressively more stressful. It's incredible that a movie at only 82
minutes can go through such a roller-coaster of emotions, and as short
as it is the movie still flies by because you're so drawn to the
character. One of the voices is Locke's coworker voiced by Andrew Scott
(Moriarty from Sherlock) and even as a voice-over his performance is
totally convincing and his back-and-forth with Hardy is electric and at
times humorous. His wife and other parties bring drama into the
equation and as things start falling apart for Locke it dips into
psychological thriller territory.

Steven Knight deserves much credit as well for having written and
directed the film. It's so smooth and sleek, from the highway shots to
the few overhead shots of the city at night. It's beautiful and adds
the ideal atmosphere for this one-man show to maneuver in. It's a
wonderfully written movie, wonderfully directed, perfectly acted
(seriously, this is the performance of Hardy's career), with a spot- on
supporting cast of voices. Locke is a mesmerizing movie from beginning
to end. If you're a Tom Hardy fan or a fan of good cinema in general,
you're doing yourself a disservice by not watching Locke.

Reviewed by Christof_McShine 8 / 10

Hardy delivers a magnificent performance

Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a successful construction manager who makes a major decision on his journey home which will impact on every aspect of his life.

This a low budget drama from writer and director Steven Knight with Hardy the sole screen presence. As he takes to the road he is seemingly a man in control of his destiny, determined to do the right thing only for everything to slowly unravel. Through conversations on the phone he tries to negotiate an emerging crisis at work with his boss and an evolving domestic situation with a concerned wife and sons desperate to have their dad home to watch the football.

With a premise of just one actor in a confined location it is testament to Hardy's acting nous that he can pull off such a taught, powerful performance solely based on reactions to the increasingly dramatic phone calls. Locke is unrelenting in his belief of doing the right thing and we see why when he has imagined conversations with his father, an apparently neglectful and emotionally absent figure in his life. These scenes in particular are beautifully shot with the use of Locke looking into the car mirrors for the man who isn't there.

It wastes very little of its short running time and overall is a captivating and rewarding film with a terrific central performance.